The bloody true story of anarchy and warring kings on which the new Game of Thrones series is based

by time news

George RR Martin, writer of the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ saga, has built his fantastic universe using real stories and elements that range from Greek fire (Wildfire, in fiction), through Hadrian’s Wall (the Wall , in the North), to the obvious link between the Borgias and the Lannisters. Not surprisingly, the greatest source of inspiration for the American author is the medieval history of the British Isles. The start of the television show ‘Game of Thrones’ was a carbon copy of the war of succession between the Yorks (the Starks) y los Lancaster (los Lannister) after the absence and extinction of the Plantagenet (the Targaryens).

With House of the Dragon, the new series in the saga, the historical inspiration also points directly to British history. The stories known in fiction as ‘Dance of the Dragons’ narrate the civil war waged between two branches of the Targaryensthe one represented by Rhaenyra against the one led by her younger half-brother Aegon, after the death of their father, King Viserys I. This conflict is doomed to be resolved in the bloodiest way and to leave as king or queen the last human being to survive the fire of the dragons.

A shipwreck that changed everything

As the author of the novels himself has recognized, the historical event on which he is inspired is the episode known as the Anarchy (1135-1153), when the dynasty of kings of Normandy experienced a turbulent succession. It all started when King Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, lost his heir William Adelin in 1120 when his ship was shipwrecked in the English Channel. Only two people survived during an accident that also affected a bastard son of the King and important members of his court. Not so Esteban de Blois, nephew of the King, who survived the catastrophe because he decided to give his place on the ship to his son shortly before departure. With William Adelin’s deathEsteban became the strongest contender to inherit the Crown.

Leaving no time for his nephew’s candidacy to gain strength, Henry I quickly remarried a woman 35 years his junior, Adele of Leuven, with the desperate intention of having more sons. It couldn’t be… Close to his death, Henry had no choice but to appoint his daughter Matilde, married to the Holy Roman Emperor, as heir. Although in some parts of Europe the right of women to reign over male secondary lines was respected, on the English throne there were many doubts about how to act. Doubts that Henry tried to ward off at his court by forcing his allies to swear allegiance to his daughter, who was widowed by her husband in 1125 and married to Geoffrey V of Anjou.

19th century illustration xiv of the sinking of the White Ship in 1120.

ABC

On the death of Henry I on December 1, 1135, a part of the nobles took a snap to turn against the Empress (title that remained symbolic) Matilda to support her cousin Stephen of Blois. The cousins ​​were engaged for two decades in a brutal conflict where the weakness of the Crown was exploited by the Scots to initiate incursions from the north and by the rebel barons to get the maximum personal benefit. Matilde’s forces even captured Esteban in the battle of lincoln 1141, but the populace of London prevented her from being declared Queen. She could never go beyond being “lady of the English” (in Latin, domina Anglorum).

While Matilda controlled part of the south-west of England, Stephen was the owner of the south-east and of the middle lands. Much of the country was in the hands of independent lords. Matilda failed to be crowned in London and, in 1148, she returned to Normandy, under the control of her husband, to have her eldest son assert her rights against Stephen. He did accede to the throne as Henry II in 1154, England’s first monarch of the Plantagenet dynasty. By the Treaty of WinchesterKing Esteban recognized him as heir in exchange for peace and above his own son.

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